Many tasks that were traditionally done by other mechanisms have been migrated to computers. For example, people now typically read news on a web browser or other content readers, whereas in the past they would have read print newspapers or magazines. Also, many financial transactions are now performed on web browsers or other types of programs, whereas in the past such transactions involved telephone calls or in-person visits to financial institutions such as banks or stock brokerages. Computers have also engendered some tasks that have no clear analog in the pre-computer world—e.g., reading and posting to blogs.
The migration of news, finance, and other fields of endeavor to computers allows tasks related to these areas to be performed in one place. Moreover, using a computer to perform various different kinds of tasks allows synergy between the tasks. For example, a news article might inspire a financial transaction, and performing the tasks of news-reading and financial transactions together on a computer allows a person to switch from one task to the other at close to the speed of thought. However, due to the lack of effective tools, many opportunities to use the synergies that result from performing different tasks on a computer have not been realized.